Ostia Antica

The first time that we visited
Ostia Antica several years ago, we had no idea of what to expect. Visiting the
ruins of ancient Rome to write a series of walking guides to archeological
sites in the Eternal City was the primary reason for our trip, but on a day
with no other research scheduled, we decided to look into this place that was
described as “better than Pompeii.” The park is formally known as the Ostia
Antica Archeological Area (Area Archeologica di Ostia Antica). When one
passes through the entry turnstyle and walks down the ancient cobblestone path
of the Via Ostiense and through the Porta Romana, it becomes clear that this is
truly an archeological site. For avocational archeologists like us, it was like
stepping into an active excavation in which the crew had just taken a break. We
were in awe of this remarkable site.

Since that time, we have returned
to Ostia each spring. This is our fourth visit in as many years, and each time,
we have been able to refine our understanding of the site by looking closely at
the individual structures to see the story that each one tells. For example,
the building materials and the construction techniques can indicate whether a
building or structure was built during the Republican period, the Imperial era
or later.

On this occasion, we were
interested in the Building of the Shops with Show Windows (Caseggiato delle
Taberne Finestrate), a fairly modest structure located west of the
Republican era castrum walls and adjacent to the Guild-seat of Trajan (Schola
del Traiano) that dates from the middle of the second century AD. We had
come to see the small square in the central part of the Angiporto delle
Taberne Finestrate that is marked by the brick arch on the north, and the
other aspect of the site, the blockage of a number of the show windows with opus
reticulatum.

Figure 1:
Looking north to the arch of the Building of Shops with Show Windows.

As we were photographing these
features, we noticed a peculiarity in the construction of the show windows and
doorways of the shops along the east side of the square. The horizontal
supports across the top of the doors and windows are etched or engraved with a
pattern of wood grain and tree knots.

Several of the openings in the
rooms of this structure have this treatment. The question is: why? It does not
appear to us that this artistic treatment of the door and window lintels is
otherwise common in Ostia. To us, it was puzzling.

On our final day in Ostia, we met
with two archeologists who have worked at Ostia in recent years, Mary Jane
Cuyler and Philipp Schmitt. We walked through the city as Cuyler explained the
evidence of Republican Ostia and Schmitt offered his own architectural insights.
When we passed the western gate of the castrum, we asked our guides if
they would like to see the peculiar lintels of the Building of the Shops with
Show Windows.

Immediately past the Schola
del Traiano, a small street, not much more than an alley, leads off the
Decumanus Maximus to the southeast. Shops line both sides of the narrow street
and a large brick arch over the street indicates the location of the small
square that is formed where the street becomes slightly wider. It is at the
arch where we pointed out the lintels over the doorways and the windows that
are etched to resemble wood, a technique known as “faux bois”.

Schmitt surveyed the first
doorway carefully. He then went into the first shop and examined the windows
and interior doorways of shop. After only a few pensive moments, he began to
explain what he saw.

The lintels are concrete, he
said. They are modern, not ancient. Schmitt pointed out the masonry at end of
the lintel, and he observed that the bricks are a lighter shade of red than
those bricks lower down on the wall. Similarly, the mortar holding those bricks
in place is a lighter shade of gray than the mortar lower down.

Figure 2: Faux bois lintel and bricks and mortar
defining new and old construction.

The subtle, but distinct change
in the tone of the bricks and the mortar around the ends of the lintel
indicates that the walls holding the lintels were reconstructed in recent
times, mostly probably in the early 20th century. The new lintels were cast in
concrete and stylized to look like wood. On close examination of the ends of
the lintel, the paint that was used to produce the dark, wood stain on the
concrete lintel was applied imprecisely, and brush strokes of the paint can be
seen on the bricks adjacent to the lintel.

Figure 3: The paint from the lintel is painted on the
adjacent bricks.

As Schmitt said, the bricks and
mortar of the repairs have aged significantly, but it is still possible to
distinguish the faint boundary between the ancient construction and the modern
renovations. Moreover, the lesson learned is that one should be aware that
construction styles may help to identify the periods of construction of the
buildings in ancient times, but the modern reconstructions must be considered,
too.

As we continued our walk through
the Ostia site, we realized how fortunate we were to have the expertise of Mary
Jane Cuyler and Philipp Schmitt available to us. What a pleasure it was to be
able to tap into their accumulated knowledge of the archeology of Ostia while
standing at the very structure in question! Grazie mille!

Louis F. Aulbach and Linda C.
Gorski are members of the Texas Historical Commission Archeological Stewards
Network. Gorski is the president of the Houston Archeological Society, and
Aulbach is the vice-president of the Houston Archeological Society. They are
writing a series of walking guides to the archeological ruins of ancient Rome.
The first two volumes in the series, Along the Aurelian Wall and Campus
Martius and Its Ancient Monuments, are available from Amazon.com and its
European affiliates. The third book in the series will be a walking guide to
Ostia Antica.